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P. L. Nelson & T. Hart A Survey of Recalled Childhood Spiritual Experiences Page 1 of 40

A SURVEY OF RECALLED CHILDHOOD SPIRITUAL AND NON-ORDINARY EXPERIENCES:AGE, RATE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR OCCURRENCE

Peter L. Nelson, Ph.D.Social Science Consultant, Sydney, Australia

Assoc. Prof. Tobin Hart, Ph.D.Psychology Dept., State University of West Georgia

ABSTRACT

There has been increasing evidence that children have direct spiritual experiences. However, there has been noresearch as to whether this describes a few prodigious children or is a more widespread phenomenon. Thecurrent study attempts to address this question through a statistical survey based on phenomenologicaldescriptions of a variety of spiritual experiences with 453 adults. The results suggest that the recollections ofchildhood spiritual moments are quite common and also affirms previous research that found higher levels ofPersonality Trait Absorption, self-perceived depression and anxiety associated with greater rates of life-timespiritual experiencing. Combined with previous case studies of children's spiritual experiences, this studychallenges conventional views of development related to children's spiritual life that has far reachingimplications for both theory and practice. This study points the way for wider scale research.

INTRODUCTION

There is increasing evidence that children have spiritual experiences (Piekowski, 2002). They

appear to have moments of unity, evince surprising expressions of compassion and connection,

manifest access to unusual wisdom, and are found wrestling with profound metaphysical questions

about such topics as life and death (Hart, 2003). These may be powerfully formative for a child's

worldview and life course, perhaps providing among the most fundamental of human and spiritual

motivation. The evidence of these experiences revealed in earlier research and in this current study

challenges conventional views of childhood development.

Traditionally, psychology and education have been dismissive of the idea that children have

genuine spiritual experiences (e.g., Goldman, 1964; Wilber, 1996). Children are seen to be

developmentally immature, without sufficient intellectual growth to manifest anything that might be

understood as meaningfully reflective and/or spiritual. For example, Wilber (1996) describes children's

mode of thinking and being as merely: "instinctual, impulsive, libidinous, id-ish, animal, apelike" (p.

2). Psychological assumptions about children's capacities remain guided by Jean Piaget's (1968) "stage"

model of cognitive development, in which children are viewed as largely incapable of meaningful

reflection. Tied to this understanding of cognition, there is also a prevalent presupposition that genuine

spirituality requires adult abstract thinking and language ability as exhibited in the higher stages of

adolescence and adulthood (see e.g., Dillon, 2000). Most researchers have, therefore, concluded that

children, especially pre-adolescents, do not, and cannot, have a spiritual life.

In addition, most research on childhood spirituality has typically equated spirituality with "God

talk"–how children think and talk about God or other religious concepts (e.g., Heller, 1986; Tamminen,


1991; Coles, 1992). Through the imposition of such cognitive and religious standards, children's

spiritual expressions go unrecognized, dismissed or are interpreted as merely immature religiosity.

However, children's spirituality may exist apart from adult rational and linguistic conceptions and

beyond religious knowledge. As Gordon Allport (1955) suggested, "the religion of childhood may be

of a very special order" (p. 101).

Rather than focusing on religious knowledge, adherence, or thinking and language capacity,

William James (1936) understood spirituality as a more direct and personal experience of

divinity—what he referred to as personal religion as opposed to institutional religion. This may

emerge as a sense of interconnection with the cosmos, a clear knowing, a sense of energy or life force,

recognition of the divine, perhaps in all things, and so forth. Although the terms 'spiritual' and

'spirituality' are commonly interchanged with words such as 'religion' and 'faith', this paper takes

'spiritual' and 'spirituality' as ways of being-in-the-world, epistemic styles and types of immediate,

ontologically shifting awareness or perception that may or may not be connected to religious faith or

belief in diety (Hart, Nelson and Puhakka, 2000).

There has been a long and rich tradition of documenting these spiritual experiences in adults. As

far back as the late Nineteenth Century, attempts were being made to survey and classify the

occurrence of spiritual and mystical experiences. Starbuck's survey of conversion (1899), which led to

James' classic study, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1936), was followed later on by Bucke's

landmark Cosmic Consciousness (1923), and in more recent times by Laski's (1961) informal inquiry

into ecstatic states and Hardy's (1979) media survey which provided an overwhelming quantity of

anecdotal material. Although these more informal studies have always revealed a surprisingly

widespread occurrence of these experiences, the idea of the rarity and exclusiveness of these

encounters has been undermined by the more rigorous surveys of Back and Bourque (1970), Thomas

and Cooper (1978), Hay and Morisy and Hay in Great Britain (1978, 1979a), Macleod-Morgan (1985)

in Australia and Haraldsson (1985) in Greenland. These surveys have revealed that a consistent 20-

60% of the population claim to have had at least one encounter of this type in a life time (Nelson,

1989).

Not only do adults have powerful spiritual experiences, but children have them as well. These

conclusions are drawn from hundreds of case studies and interviews (e.g., Armstrong, 1984; Hart,

2003; Hay and Nye, 1998; Hoffman, 1992, Piechowski, 2002; Robinson, 1983; Robinson and Jackson,

1987). In addition to contemporary accounts, surprisingly, many of the great mystics and sages

throughout history describe their spiritual life as beginning in childhood. Native American Elder Black

Elk had his most profound visions at 5 and 9 (Neihardt, 1972), the 19th century Indian spiritual leader


Ramakrishna had a direct encounter with divinity at 6 (Nikhilananda, 1970) and it was the Jesuit sage

Teilhard de Chardin who said, "I was certainly no more than six or seven when I began to feel myself

drawn to Matter—or more exactly by something that 'shone' in the heart of matter" (Cobb, 1967, p. 90).

While there remains debate on what these events ultimately mean for human development, it is

increasing apparent that at least some children have powerful spiritual experiences and capacities.

However, prior to this present study there has been virtually no empirical research on what proportion

of the population of children actually have these kinds of experiences. Are we speaking of a few

prodigious children or a common range of experiences among children? If a handful of exceptional

children have a spiritual life then this may be an interesting area of study along lines similar to that of

gifted development. If a larger proportion of the population of children have these encounters, it may

demand a major revision in our assumptions, theories as well as our practices in the education and care

for children.

Many of the earlier surveys of adults tended to use single, catchall questions such as, "Have you

ever had a 'religious or mystical experience' that is, a moment of sudden religious insight or

awakening?" Back and Bourque (1970) were using this question as a technical exercise in order to

determine whether or not "very private" experiences could be investigated through the employment of

regular survey and interview techniques. However, they noted that over the course of their three sample

periods of 1962, 1966 and 1967, the question brought increasing positive response rates of 20.5, 31.8

and 41.2 percent, respectively. They concluded that it was not a function of cultural change which

caused the progressive increase over the three Gallup polls they sponsored, but rather the interview

techniques employed which affected the threshold of what an experient would consider reportable

(Back and Bourque, 1970, p. 493).

Thomas and Cooper (1978) employed Greeley's (1974) general question ("Have you ever had the

feeling of being close to a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of yourself?") as a net to

capture the world of spiritual experients while Hay (1979b) used his own catchall question ("Do you

feel that you have ever been aware of or influenced by a presence or a power, whether you call it God

or not, which is different from your everyday self?"). In a larger-scale national study conducted

together with Ann Morisy (1978) they used the same question. All of these single question surveys led

to a wide variety of responses which were then subjected to a post hoc parsing into various categories

of spiritual and non-ordinary experiencing.

These categories were drawn from the subject's descriptions and it is now generally accepted that

the phenomenological approach to the study of 'private' experience, as witnessed in cognitive

anthropology, for example, can provide useful descriptions of religious experience from a position of


ontological neutrality (Nelson and Howell, 1993-4). And Hay (1979) also argues that the recurrence

and apparent uniformity and consistency of these experiences fits the requirements underlying all

objective science.

The variety of experience types that have been reported in response to the single, catchall

questions suggests that we are looking at a broad range of phenomena. Questions couched in, for

example, religious and/or deistic terms potentially will miss experients who do no conceptualize their

experiences in this way, and those who do may be dismissive of those experiences. In order to correct

the lack of operational specificity of the earlier experience 'nets', Nelson (1989a, 1990, 1991) used ten

more specific items based on the ad hoc categories gleaned from earlier work. In addition, he redefined

how we might conceptualize these experiences developing three broad dimensions that encompassed

psychological 'set' and 'setting' as well as phenomenological 'components' that describe the range of

qualia 'seen' on this experiential 'horizon'.

In addition to the issue of frequency of occurrence, there remains the question of whether some

individuals are more prone to these kinds of encounters. Several studies (Irwin, 1985; Nelson, 1989b)

show a strong relationship between a particular personality trait, Absorption (Tellegen and Atkinson,

1974), and the frequency of occurrence of non-ordinary experiencing in adults. However, there have

not been any studies to date that attempt to compare rates of reported childhood spiritual experiences

with adult levels of Personality Trait Absorption as measured by the Tellegen (1982) Absorption

subscale.. Tellegen and Atkinson (1974) found in a factor analytic study of personality that their third

major and largest factor was a cluster they labeled "Openness to Absorbing and Self-Altering

Experiences" or "Absorption".The scales with the highest loadings in both samples on this factor are Reality Absorption, FantasyAbsorption, Dissociation, and Openness to Experience, with Devotion-Trust and Autonomy-Criticality showing somewhat lower salient loadings. (p. 271)

The authors indicate that this type of personality phenomenon, while generally overlooked in

academic treatments of attention, perception and memory, is referred to widely in the literature on

meditation, altered states and peak experiences. They suggest that the attention described by the items

of the Absorption scale "is a 'total' attention, involving a full commitment of available perceptual,

motoric, imaginative and ideational resources to a unified representation of the attentional object."

According to Tellegen and Atkinson this personality attribute is an 'applied skill' and the experience is

characterized by:


! A heightened sense of the reality of the attentional object;! Imperviousness to normally distracting events;! An altered sense of reality in general and of the self in particular (p. 274).

The authors conclude by asserting that:Objects of absorbed attention acquire an importance and intimacy that are normally reserved for theself and may, therefore, acquire a temporary self-like quality. These object identifications havemystical overtones. And, indeed, one would expect high-absorption persons to have an affinity formystical experience, even if true unio mystica is, itself, a rare attainment. (p. 275)

They further refine their notion of Absorption by concluding that the empirical evidence

demonstrates that it is independent of 'Stability' ('Ego Resiliency') and 'Introversion' ('Ego Control'). In

other words, the high Absorption subject may or may not have a strong and resilient sense of self and

may or may not be impulsive thus indicating an independence of absorptive behavior from neuroticism

(p. 275).

All this considered, this study will attempt to address, first, the broader issue of childhood

spiritual experiences as outlined above—how common are spiritual and related experiences in

childhood as recalled by young adults—and, further, it also will examine whether or not there is a link

between the rate of this kind of experiencing and the absorptive personality style. Finally, the study

also attempts to look for a relationship between the frequency of occurrence of spiritual and non-

ordinary experiencing and self perceived depression and anxiety.

METHOD

A statistical survey of about four hundred and fifty young adults was conducted at the

Department of Psychology at the State University of West Georgia. Participants were students who

were taking Introductory Psychology (but not necessarily psychology majors) and were posed

questions about a variety of different kinds of specific spiritual experiences rather than focusing on

only one general question as has been more typical of surveys of this nature. Respondents were asked

to rate the frequency of occurrence of each of items in tables 1a-1c on an ordinal scale ("Never;" "Once

only;" "2-3 times;" "More often") with the additional option to tick "Don't Understand." There were

additional items about related experiences included in the questionnaire, but they were not used in this

analysis and therefore will not be examined here. The primary research items (21 in all) used were

grouped into three general categories (meta-categories) as shown in tables 1a – 1c. These meta-

categories are "Non-Ordinary Guidance" (NOG), "Non-Ordinary Perception" (NOP) and "Mystical

Knowing" (MK). The rate of experience for each of these meta-categories is a derived variable created

by setting logical criteria for what would constitute the general occurrence rate categories of 'Never',

'Rarely', 'More Often', and 'Frequently'. Using a series of logic statements the rate of occurrence of


each of the primary variables within each meta-category was used to create a meta-category experience

rate that represents as closely as possible the overall participation respondent showed within a given

meta-category.

The items in the meta-category, Non-Ordinary Guidance (Table 1a), include a sense of being

guided that gives an impression to the experient of having been moved, pushed or guided in life-

changing and important ways from some ontological 'otherness' beyond and greater than the ordinary

world of people and objects. In addition, understanding requires an altered epistemic frame of reference

including an altered belief in causality and how life works. Item 1 (NOG) directly asks this question

whereas Item 2 (NOG) has the implication of guidance to the new practice. The kind of crisis alluded

to in Item 3 (NOG) and the subsequent life changes that follow, are often interpreted as guidance to

most experients and in this case it can be deemed as especially true since the item enquires about

profound awareness (epistemic) changes resulting. In Item 4 (NOG) knowledge of God is often

understood as mystical knowing but the key phrase is "…influenced by the presence of God" which

would likely indicate an experience of being guided from some other ontic source. And in Item 5

(NOG) there is clearly an intervention from a non-ordinary other, ontological source that brings about

an outcome thereby implying non-ordinary guidance.

Table 1aItems for Non-Ordinary Guidance—NOG

1. Have you ever had the experience of receiving guidance from some source that is not part of our usual physical world?

2. Have you ever encountered a time in your life, either precipitated by crisis or good times, which led you to adopt a new or differentspiritual practice?

3. Have you ever experienced a personal crisis which led to questioning your very identity only to have this process lead you to a newand profound awareness?

4. Do you feel that you have ever been directly aware of or influenced by the presence of God?

5. Have you ever had an accident and, at the moment it was happening, someone or something seemed to appear from nowhere andintervene to help you?

In the case of Non-Ordinary Perception (Table 1b), the grouping was conceptualized to include

most paranormal awarenesses and knowings that require understanding through a revised epistemic

frame and may or may not require an ontological source removed from the ordinary world. Whether or

not these experiences are truly paranormal remains unknown. Here we are reporting what the experient

understands the nature of the experience to be rather than attempting to assess it against any standard

for actual paranormal perceptions. Items 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8 (NOP) imply the occurrences of a classic

extra sensory perception (ESP) experiences (telepathy, clairvoyance, and pre/post-cognitions) whether

these occur through dreams or waking states (Nelson, 1989a). Item 2 (NOP) indicates the operation of

an emotional or sensual telepathy—a kind of deep empathy (Hart, 2000) whereas Item 3 (NOP) is the


classic near death experience (NDE) (Ring, 1985) and 6 (NOP) is an out-of-body experience (OBE)

(Tart, 1968; Monroe, 1971).

Table 1bItems for Non-Ordinary Perception—NOP

1. Have you ever had memories that felt like they were about you, but at the same time seemed to be about someone else of a differenttime and place?

2. Do the presences and/or feelings of others seem to enter into you without any verbal or physical contact as if you are a receiver andthey are transmitters?

3. Have you ever had an experience during a life threatening event—such as an accident, major surgery or other physical trauma—inwhich you had an intense experience of a non-ordinary light or darkness and/or experienced meeting deceased loved ones or otherdisincarnate beings (beings in non-physical form).

4. Have you ever seen, physically felt, smelled, or heard something or somebody that you realized in retrospect was not really there inthe same way as ordinary everyday objects, people and events?

5. Have you ever felt a presence of someone who was not there in a physical way?

6. Have you ever had a vivid experience of 'flying' to a remote location without any physical means and/or have you had theexperience of actually seeing your physical body from a perspective 'outside' of yourself?

7. Do you ever feel that at times you know about events before they happen and/or you know about past events without having heardor read of them but later learn they actually happened?

8. Do you ever feel that at times you know people's thoughts/feelings unusually accurately without being told or shown in any direct,physical way?

Finally, Mystical Knowing (Table 1c) was conceptualized as non-ordinary knowing that not only

requires a different epistemic frame than that for ordinary, sensate experiences, but implies an

ontological source beyond and encompassing that source from which the existence of ordinary people,

things and events emerges. In this category Item 1 (MK) represents the penetration of illusion, as in

'seeing' behind the 'veil' that covers the ultimate truth, and Item 2 (MK) the gaining of knowledge and

understanding from sources beyond ordinary ontological sources representing some kind of 'higher'

truth as in revelatory knowing. Item 3 in this group represents an entry into a transcendental realm or

mystical union as in Stace's notion of 'introverted' mystical experience (1960) as does Item 4 (MK).

Items 5 and 7 (MK) contain significant elements of Stace's 'extrovertive' mystical experience and Item

6 (MK) has a similar element combined with Otto's (1958) "creature feeling" from his notion of the

"Mysterium tremendum et fascinans." In the context of mystical knowing Item 6 can be seen as the

"fascinans" from Otto's description, but it can also be an experience that has a more mundane

interpretation. Thus, this item is probably borderline mystical knowing because the sort of wonderment

alluded to may or may not point to a deeper ontology and an altered epistemic frame. However, taken

in the total context of the MK items, it appears to add an element appropriate to it. Although the

shamanic-like experience represented by the last item (MK 8) in this category is not typically referred

to as mystical, in its epistemic and ontological implications it is closer to mystical knowing than to any

of the other categories and was therefore included here.


Table 1cItems for Mystical Knowing—MK

1. As a child, did you have times when you experienced life as an illusion and unreal, but one in which most people, includinggrownups, seemed to be caught up? (Perhaps it appeared to be like a play in which everyone was just acting but didn't know it.)

2. Have you ever found yourself knowing and/or saying something that seemed to come through you, rather than from you, expressinga wisdom you don't feel you usually have?

3. Have you ever felt as though you were very close to a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of or take you beyondyour ordinary self?

4. Have you ever had an intense experience of attaining union with the 'cosmic', divine or ultimate ground of being in which you feltyourself 'dissolve' or merge with the ultimate and after which you felt as though the encounter had changed your life?

5. Have you ever had an experience in which you perceived that all was really connected together as one?

6. Do you sometimes feel a sense of awe and wonderment inspired by the immediate world around you?

7. Do you sometimes purposely 'tune in' to a special quality of the world that seems to underlie everything around us?

8. While awake, have you ever suddenly been cast into a strange new world or reality which had a vividness that made the wholeexperience appear to be absolutely real although in retrospect you realized that the entire episode may not have physicallyhappened?

Included with each of the primary experience items was a request for the respondent to enter both

the age at which time s/he first had each experience and the age at which s/he last had an encounter. Of

course, there are potential inaccuracies when individuals attempt to recall dates for specific

events—especially from childhood. However, the kinds of events being recalled tend to stand out with

exceptional vividness and, for most, the age of occurrence tends to be 'logged' with the remembered

details of the event itself because of its milestone nature. In addition, the vast majority of our

respondents were undergraduates in their late teens or early twenties and were, for the most part, not

that great a time 'distance' from the period in which the recalled events occurred.

Following this first section, the 34 item Tellegen Absorption Scale was administered. Each of the

scale's items also included two additional sub-items to be addressed for each item marked 'true' by the

respondent. These sub-items were designed to assess the level of 'opportunity' respondents make for

the kind of experience delineated by each Tellegen item as well as their self-perceived difficulty

('capacity') for having each of the 34 experience items (see Nelson, 1995 for an explanation of this

extension of the Tellegen scale). Nelson's modification adds two ten-point rating scales to each primary

item. The first sub-item assesses the respondent's frequency of initiating the behavior described in the

Tellegen item and the second additional sub-item ascertains how easy or difficult it is for the

respondent to engage in the behavior described in each scale item. The final score for the primary

Tellegen Absorption items is the sum of all 'True' responses (given a value of 1 each) and referred to in

this paper as the Total Absorption Score (TAS). For each of the added sub-items the final score is the

sum of the individual ratings for each of the 34 sub-items of each type ('opportunity' and 'capacity'), the

former score being labeled Total Absorption Opportunity Score (TAOS) and the latter the Total

Absorption Capacity Score (TACS).


Following this section items inquired about participants' history of medically treated mental

illness as well as asking them to self-assess rates of occurrence of depression and anxiety. In the final

section of the questionnaire demographic data (including gender, age, birth religion, current religious

affiliation, church attendance, related church activities attendance, and frequency of change of religious

affiliation in the respondent's lifetime) were obtained.

RESULTS

Demographic Analysis

The sample collected (N= 453) is comprised of 73.5% females and 24.7% males (8 cases refused

or neglected to indicate gender on the last page of the questionnaire [1.8%]). The mean age of the

group is 20.5 years (median = 19, S.D. = 4.438) with all but 17 (3.8%) respondents giving their age

(number of years "at my last birthday"). The maximum age reported was 52 (mature-age student) and

the minimum was 15 (some high school students are able to attend college courses at the State

University of West Georgia). 94.7% of the sample reporting their age was under 25 years. So, for the

most part, this group ranged in age between 15 and 25 years.

Of the 428 (94.5%) respondents answering the item on birth religion, 90.0% claimed to have

been born some form of Christian, 7.2% indicated there was no religious affiliation at birth with the

remainder consisting of two Jews, two Buddhists, one Muslim, one Pagan and a few assorted "Other"

non-common organizations. When asked what their current religious affiliation is, 79.6% claimed to

be Christian with 12.9% now claiming no religious organizational connection and 4.7% of respondents

indicating "Other". Of the overall sample, 53.5% attend their chosen religious center once per month or

more with 10.8% attending more than once per week and 4.7% never attending (17.8% responding

affirmatively to current religious affiliation indicated that their frequency of attendance "Does not

apply"). Of those whose religious organizations have additional activities available, 31.0% attend them.

This sample is undoubtedly overwhelmingly Christian in both background and by current religious

affiliation and this group's self-reported religious participation rate is generally in line with the national

average for the United States as reported in other surveys. In our group 57.8% females attend their

chosen religious organization once per month or more while males attend at a rate of 40.5%. In a large

scale study conducted in the United States and Australia, it was found that 49.6% of American women

aged 50 and younger attend once per month or more while males in the same age range in that

American sample attend at a rate of 41.0% (Kirk et al, 1999).


Analysis of Meta-Categories: NOG, NOP and MK

For the overall group, over 90% appear to feel as if non-ordinary guidance has taken place in the

movement of their lives with nearly 60% believing that this has been a fairly regular part of their lives

(see Table 2a for breakdowns of the three meta-category ranks of participation). Of course, this is not

surprising for a group overwhelmingly Christian with a 40-60 percent church attendance rate. In

addition, over 90% of the sample believe they have non-ordinary perceptions as defined by the items in

Table 1b with more than 65% claiming these as fairly regular occurrences. Comparing the NOP and

NOG groups, respondents in the highest experience rate rank ("Frequently") represent 25% of the

sample in the case of the former and 7% for the latter.

Table 2a: Frequency of Occurrence of NOG, NOP and MK Meta-Category Experience Types for all agegroups

NOG NOP MKFrequency Count % Count % Count %

Never 39 8.61 34 7.51 37 8.17Rarely 155 34.22 120 26.49 136 30.02

More Often 228 50.33 186 41.06 179 39.51Frequently 31 6.84 113 24.95 101 22.30

For the mystical knowing (MK) group, the percentages are very similar to those seen in the NOP

breakdown. There are no apparent gross differences across the three general experience types for

frequency of occurrence. However, the process of converting the 21 items into meta-categories (NOG,

NOP, MK) may have altered the overall distribution of experience rates such that fewer experients are

now found in the "Frequently" category because the conversion process used a conservative approach

and tended to re-rank experients 'downward' into the "More Often" and "Rarely" levels.

In particular, the downward ranking of the NOG group may be due to the fact that fewer people

feel this sort of guidance daily. Examining the single item that most directly accesses the function of

'guidance', the numbers are more heavily weighted toward the high occurrence rank rather than loaded

in the middle. However, the items about 'crisis' and especially 'God' (over 50% claim 'More Often')

may tend to drag the numbers upward for guidance. Otherwise, Christian religious culture may be an

explanation in that experients may tend to understand events as the result of guidance originating from

a deistic source.

A Chi-Square test for dependency between the meta-category rank, NOG, and gender reveals a

strong relationship (Chi-square = 12.42, 3 df, p = 0.0061). Women tend to be over-represented in the

two higher frequency of occurrence ranks ("More Often" and "Frequently") whereas men are under-

represented in these ranks. 92.8% of women report one or more NOG type experiences in their lives

with only slightly fewer men (88.4%) reporting any experiences of these types. However, 61.9% of


women report rates in the top two ranks, whereas only 42.9% of men do. NOP type experiences, on

the other hand, show no dependency with gender with 93.3% of women reporting any experiences and

92% of men similarly reporting. Finally, the meta-category of Mystical Knowing cross-tabulated with

gender reveals a borderline dependency (Chi-square = 5.462 with 3 df, p = 0.1409). However, this

time men (70.6%) are somewhat over-represented in the higher two experience rate ranks compared to

women (59.4%) with men showing an overall rate of experience of 92.9% and women a similar rate of

91.8%.

For each subject in the sample a mean age for first experience was calculated for those

respondents reporting a first age of occurrence. The mean of the mean ages for each meta-category

was derived which shows a clear trend for first-time spiritual and related non-ordinary encounters to

occur in early adolescence (NOG mean = 14.0, St.D. = 4.1; NOP mean = 13.6, St.D. = 4.0; MK mean =

12.7, St.D. = 4.6). The mean ages for each meta-category were then grouped into age ranks as shown

in Table 2b and frequency breakdowns for each meta-category were calculated.

Table 2b: Distribution of NOG, NOP and MK Meta-Category Experience Types across age groupsNOG NOP MK

Age Range Count % Count % Count %Under 6 yrs 5 1.656 4 1.429 21 7.2666 to < 12 yrs 73 24.172 88 31.429 95 32.87212 to < 18 yrs 172 56.954 145 51.786 144 49.82718+ 52 17.219 43 15.357 29 10.035

It is immediately evident that adolescence (age 12 to under 18 years) is the time that this sample

reports the highest rates of first encounters for all three experience types. What is even more

interesting, however, is the relatively high occurrence in all meta-categories of first experiences

reported in pre-adolescence (age 6 to less than 12 years). Almost a quarter of those giving first ages in

the NOG group claim a first encounter in pre-adolescence while NOP and MK experients represent

almost a third of first-time spiritual and related encounters.

Analysis of Non-Ordinary Guidance itemsReferencing the items which comprise the NOG meta-category (Table 1a), Table 3 provides a

breakdown and summary for each of those items. The columns labeled "Never", "Once" and "2 or

More" provide the percentages of participation for rates of occurrence of each NOG item. "Mean Age

First" is the average age for the first occurrence of a given item and "Mean Age Last" for the last

occurrence (SD = Standard Deviation). The last four columns of the table provide percentage

participation rates of experients across age ranks of the occurrence of a first encounter for each item of


those reporting an age (those reporting an encounter without giving an age are not counted in this

summary).

Table 3: Frequency of Occurrence*, Mean Ages of First and Last Occurrences, and Age Distribution ofOccurrence of NOG Items

NOGItems

Never(%)

Once(%)

2 orMore(%)

MeanAge First

(years)

MeanAge Last(years)

Less than6 years

(%)

6 to <12years(%)

12 to <18years(%)

18 years& Over

(%)1 35.8 11.0 50.3 12.1

SD=5.5319.7

SD=4.5713.7 31.1 40.4 14.9

2 69.9 18.4 11.1 15.4SD=4.03

21.1SD=7.24

1.0 13.9 58.4 26.7

3 40.0 30.1 28.3 16.2SD=3.51

19.5SD=4.05

0 6.5 56.0 37.5

4 21.4 9.3 66.9 16.2SD=3.51

19.5SD=4.05

8.1 35.3 42.2 14.5

5 73.6 12.9 12.2 14.2SD=5.41

18.3SD=4.31

5.5 27.4 41.1 26.0

*For each NOG item the sum of the percentages of frequency of occurrence does not equal 100 because some respondents checked "Don'tUnderstand" as their response to an item. In addition, discrepancies in percentages across first age ranks with those given in the text foreach item are a result of the fact that the proportions used in the text for each item include only those individuals who also reported ausable response for frequency of occurrence.

An examination of Table 3 reveals that experiences 1 and 4 show quite high percentages of

experients as having had these encounters more than once. Both items represent direct guidance from

an ontologically 'other' source. When that source is specifically labeled as being God, the response rate

of the sample is highest (total participation = 76.2%). On the other hand, items 2 and 5 show the

lowest overall rates of occurrence (29.5% and 25.1%, respectively). The former item implies that one is

being guided to a new religio-spiritual life while the latter accesses the notion of a personal intervention

for some specific event. What is most striking from Table 3, however, are the peaks in the percentages

of first experience ages falling in adolescence (ages 12 to under 18 years—see Figure 1a).

Items 2 and 3 appear to have related distributions across first-age ranks as do items 1, 4 and 5.

This may be due to the conceptual relationship between these items—2 and 3 are about crisis induced

change whereas the other three items are conceptually to do with guidance and/or intervention from a

source outside of normal reality given more on an on-going basis. In the breakdown given in Table 3,

the distribution of experients across first-age ranks shows adolescence—followed in rate of

participation by pre-adolescence—is most often the time when individuals appear to have their first

experience of non-ordinary guidance.


Figure 1a: Relative Rates of NOG Experiences Across First Age Ranks

Figure 1b illustrates the relationship of age ranks to experience rates graphically for each of the

NOG items. The left-hand columns of pie charts (for each column pair) represents whether an

experient reports only one occurrence of a given item and the second column displays those who have

had more than one encounter. The individual 'pies' show the distribution of age groups across

experience rates ('One'; 'Two or More').

It is immediately evident that adolescence (aged 12 to under 18 years) is the single most

important time for first experiences of the NOG type. When combined with the pre-adolescent group

(aged 6 to under 12 years), as many as 80% (NOG Item 4—"2 or More Times") of first time

experiences are accounted dropping to slightly more than half for the smallest of these combined

groups (NOG Item 3—"Once Only"). Figure 2 thus reveals that the preponderance of these

experiences commenced in adolescence and pre-adolescence combined.

NOG Item 1—"Have you ever had the experience of receiving guidance from some source that is not partof our usual physical world?"

Of those responding affirmatively to this item, 71.4% had one or more episodes of this

experience type starting between the ages of 6 and 18 years. A Chi-Square test for dependency of the

two categorical variables, age rank of first encounter and frequency of occurrence, reveals a significant

relationship (Chi-square = 8.827, 3 df, p = 0.0317). One cell had only 4, so this statistic is only

suggestive. Nevertheless, the suggestion is that those who start having this type of experience at a

younger age (less than 18 years) are somewhat more prone to having this encounter more than once.

However, the relative youthfulness of this sample may exaggerate this effect.


Figure 1b:Distribution of percentage of NOG experients across first-age ranks and for each lifetimefrequency of occurrence rank

NOG Item 2—"Have you ever encountered a time in your life, either precipitated by crisis or good times,which led you to adopt a new or different spiritual practice?"

Assuming that spiritual practice is equated in the minds of most Americans with religious

affiliation and belief, it is not surprising that 70% answered 'Never' to this item since it would mean

disloyalty to one's church and hence disloyalty to and exclusion from community. Here, too, almost

three quarters (72.3%) of the experients for this item report their first encounter from age six to under

18 years. However, here there is no significant dependency relationship between age rank of first

encounter and experience rate.

NOG Item 3—"Have you ever experienced a personal crisis which led to questioning your very identityonly to have this process lead you to a new and profound awareness?"

To this item considerably more than half (58.4%) of participants gave a positive response with

62.5% of first encounters of this type taking place within the periods of adolescence and pre-

adolescence combined. Those claiming only one encounter had a fairly high representation (46%) in

the 18 and over age group, while those in the multiple experience group had their greatest

representation in the twelve to under 18 year age group (63.4%). A test for dependency between age

rank of first encounter and experience rate yielded a significant result (Chi-square = 13.51, 2 df, p =

0.0012) again showing that those who commence earlier (less than 18 years) are somewhat more prone


to having this particular experience type more than once. As previously, one cell was under

subscribed, so the results must be taken as suggestive only.

NOG Item 4—"Do you feel that you have ever been directly aware of or influenced by the presence ofGod?"

To this item, two thirds of the respondents indicated that they had had an encounter of this kind

two or more times with 77.5% of those reporting this experience having had it from age 6 to before age

18. Again, as in the previous item, the first-timers, who are 18 years and over, are a greater proportion

of the "Once Only" group (32.4%) than they are of the multiple experience group (9.6%). Here, too,

there is a significant dependency relationship between age rank of first encounter and experience rate

(Chi-square = 22.22, 3 df, p ! 0.0001) with the age group of first experients from 12 years and under

disproportionately represented among those who report multiple experiences. One cell was empty

("Under 6 years" and "Once Only") and, as before, the results can only be taken as suggestive.

NOG Item 5—"Have you ever had an accident and, at the moment it was happening, someone orsomething seemed to appear from nowhere and intervene to help you?"

This item, like Item 2, had a very high negative response rate (73.6%). Of those that did respond

affirmatively over two thirds (68.1%) fell into the age range 6 to under 18 for their first encounters.

However, here there appears to be no dependency relationship between age rank of first encounter and

experience rate in this case.

Analysis of Non-Ordinary Perception itemsTable 4 reveals that for items 1-4 and 6 half or more of the group surveyed claimed never to have

had these experiences with items 3 and 6 reporting negatively 90% and 79% of the time, respectively.

It is worth noting that Item 3, the least reported for this sample in this category, shows the oldest

occurring age 'peak' (post-adolescence) for a first-time experience (see Table 4 and Figure 2a) and may

be underrepresented due to the young average age of this sample. Item 8, however, seems to be fairly

common (69.6% report it) and is probably the least non-ordinary in the NOP meta-category. It is clear

from Figure 2b that of those reporting NOP experiences, half or more of first encounters were in

adolescence or pre-adolescence except in the case of Item 3 ("Once-Only"), and Item 8 ("Once-Only")

experients. Again, this may be due to the age range of the sample. All of the NOP items, except for 1

and 3, show a very similar pattern of onset distribution across age ranks (Figure 2a) peaking in

adolescence (12 to <18 years). Item 1 peaks in pre-adolescence and, as indicated above, Item 3 peaks

in young adulthood (18 years or older).


Table 4: Frequency of Occurrence*, Mean Ages of First and Last Occurrences, and Age Distribution ofOccurrence of NOP Items

NOPItems

Never(%)

Once(%)

2 OrMore(%)

MeanAge First

(years)

MeanAge Last(years)

Less than6 years

(%)

6 to <12years(%)

12 to <18years(%)

18 years& Over

(%)1 57.4 9.1 29.9 12.1

SD=4.6219.4

SD=5.067.6 41.3 38.0 13.0

2 52.3 3.8 38.5 12.9SD=4.95

19.8SD=4.89

14.8 20.5 50.0 14.8

3 89.6 5.8 3.1 15.3SD=7.39

19.2SD=6.88

17.9 10.7 25.0 46.4

4 55.5 14.5 29.2 13.5SD=5.95

18.2SD=6.06

8.5 25.4 45.4 20.8

5 41.4 14.6 42.9 13.3SD=5.02

19.3SD=5.22

7.9 27.2 45.0 19.9

6 78.9 6.9 13.5 13.3SD=4.39

17.1SD=3.50

6.9 24.1 60.3 8.6

7 37.3 6.2 55.1 13.2SD=4.31

19.4SD=4.23

4.9 26.4 52.1 16.7

8 29.7 4.9 64.7 13.5SD=4.68

20.0SD=5.36

5.7 25.5 48.4 20.4

*For each NOG item the sum of the percentages of frequency of occurrence does not equal 100 because some respondents checked "Don'tUnderstand" as their response to an item. In addition, discrepancies in percentages across first age ranks with those given in the text foreach item are a result of the fact that the proportions used in the text for each item include only those individuals who also reported ausable response for frequency of occurrence.

Figure 2a: Relative Rates of NOP Experiences Across First Age Ranks


Figure 2b:Distribution of percentage of NOP experients across first-age ranks and for each lifetimefrequency of occurrence rank

NOP Item 1—"Have you ever had memories that felt like they were about you, but at the same timeseemed to be about someone else of a different time and place?"

For those responding affirmatively to this question, 79.4% had their first encounter sometime

from age 6 to before their eighteenth birthday with the pre-adolescent group representing slightly more

than half of that sub-group (41.3% of all reporting the experience). A test for dependency between age

rank of first encounter and rate of occurrence over life-time so far reveals a significant result (Chi-

square = 13.58, 3 df, p = 0.0035). However, with two cells underrepresented (0 and 4), the results are

rather weak. What the cross-tabulation does suggest is similar to previous analyses: starting younger is

indicative of an individual who will tend to have a given experience more often in life.


NOP Item 2—"Do the presences and/or feelings of others seem to enter into you without any verbal orphysical contact as if you are a receiver and they are transmitters?"

The perceptions characterized by this item occur for the first time for 71.3% of experients during

the period from age 6 to under 18 years of age. However, here the majority of experients from that

group had their first encounter in adolescence. In this case, there was no dependency relationship

between age rank of first encounter and rate of occurrence.

NOP Item 3—" Have you ever had an experience during a life threatening event—such as an accident,major surgery or other physical trauma—in which you had an intense experience of a non-ordinary lightor darkness and/or experienced meeting deceased loved ones or other disincarnate beings (beings in non-physical form).

Item 2 is represented in this overall sample by a fairly small group of experients (N = 26 or 5.7%

of the entire sample). This type of near death (NDE) or trauma encounter is not particularly wide

spread in the normal population (Nelson, 1989a) and, in the case of a young sample, would be expected

to occur even less frequently. Nevertheless, half of the one-time experients in this group had their first

encounter at age 18 or later and this age group for combined single and multiple experients is the single

largest sub-group for this item containing 46.2% of the experients.

NOP Item 4—"Have you ever seen, physically felt, smelled, or heard something or somebody that yourealized in retrospect was not really there in the same way as ordinary everyday objects, people andevents?"

Almost half of the respondents to this item indicated at least one experience of this type. Again,

the combined first age groups spanning ages 6 to under 18 account for 71.4% of the reports with the 12

to under 18 year olds accounting for the largest single group of first-timers (45.8% of all positive

respondents). The dependency relationship between age rank of first encounter and rate of occurrence

over respondent's life-time so far reveals a borderline significance (Chi-square = 5.591, 3 df, p =

0.1333). In this case those under 12 years of age are slightly over-represented as the starting point for

those who tend to have multiple experiences.

NOP Item 5—"Have you ever felt a presence of someone who was not there in a physical way?"

For this item well over half of the respondents indicated having had this kind of experience

(57.5%). The largest single starting age group is 12 to 17 year olds (45.4% of experients) with the 6 to

under 18 year olds representing 72.1% of all positive respondents to this item. A test for dependency

between age rank of first encounter and rate of occurrence over life-time so far yields a highly

significant Chi-square statistic (20.64, 3 df, p = 0.0001) with a tendency for multiple experients to be

over-represented as starting in the two youngest age groups.


NOP Item 6—"Have you ever had a vivid experience of 'flying' to a remote location without any physicalmeans and/or have you had the experience of actually seeing your physical body from a perspective'outside' of yourself?"

Here, again, is an item with a relatively low overall positive response rate (20.4%). As in

previous items, the middle two first-time age ranks hold the majority of experients—single and

multiple (84.2%)—with the 12 to under 18 year old age group holding the majority of experients

(61.4%) for this type.

NOP Item 7—" Do you ever feel that at times you know about events before they happen and/or you knowabout past events without having heard or read of them but later learn they actually happened?"

This NOP item had a 61.3% positive response rate, overall, with 78.4% of experients falling

among the 6 to under 18 year old first-timers with the largest single first-age group being 12 to under

18 year olds (51.8%). A test for dependency between age rank of first encounter and rate of occurrence

over life-time so far generates a significant result (Chi-square = 11.89, 3 df, p = 0.0078) but can be

taken as suggestive only because two cells are underrepresented. This dependency appears to be

generated by a marginal tendency for multiple experients to start having this experience under the age

of 18.

NOP Item 8—"Do you ever feel that at times you know people's thoughts/feelings unusually accuratelywithout being told or shown in any direct, physical way?"

Item 8 had the single highest positive response rate for the entire NOP group—69.6% having had

one or more of this experience type. Unlike the majority of the other items, one-time experients in this

group had their first and only encounter at 18 or older (73%). However, the total number of individuals

falling into the once-only rate for this item are relatively small (15). In line with most of the previous

items, experients who have had more than one experience of this type overwhelmingly start during the

period from 6 to under 18 years of age (79% of multiple experients; 73.4% of all experients for this

item) with the largest share in adolescence (52% of multiple experients; 48.8% of all experients for this

item). Here, too, there is a significant dependency relationship between age rank of first encounter and

rate of occurrence over life-time so far (Chi-square = 28.06, 3 df, p ! 0.0001), but, again, there are not

enough items in three of the eight cells to allow us to take this result as being anything more than

somewhat suggestive.

Analysis of Mystical Knowing ItemsAll but Item 1 in this meta-category follow a similar pattern of distribution of proportions of

experients across age ranks for first occurrence (see Table 5 and figures 3a and 3b), sharply peaking at

adolescence (ages 12 to less than 18 years of age). On the other hand, Item 1 follows an entirely


separate pattern of occurrence with first encounters peaking for the age group under 6 years and falling

off to near zero by age 18. In addition to its non-conforming distribution, Item 1 also had the highest

response rate to the choice, "Don't Understand," indicating that it was problematic for this sample.

Table 5: Frequency of Occurrence*, Mean Ages of First and Last Occurrences, and Age Distribution ofOccurrence of MK Items

MKItems

Never(%)

Once(%)

2 OrMore(%)

MeanAge First

(years)

MeanAge Last(years)

Less than6 years

(%)

6 to <12years(%)

12 to <18years(%)

18 years& Over

(%)1† 52.0 6.7 27.2 6.9

SD=3.4714.7

SD=5.1843.1 40.7 15.4 0.8

2 42.5 10.2 44.1 13.8SD=5.25

19.5SD=5.31

7.7 18.5 54.6 19.2

3 60.0 10.2 27.7 14.2SD=4.76

20.4SD=6.13

5.3 23.2 48.4 23.2

4 67.2 9.5 9.5 15.7SD=4.87

20.3SD=5.90

1.6 14.5 53.2 30.6

5 52.6 10.0 28.8 14.7SD=4.87

19.8SD=5.69

4.2 17.9 48.4 29.5

6 19.6 5.8 72.4 12.2SD=4.94

20.1SD=4.24

12.1 27.5 45.6 14.8

7 61.3 4.0 23.8 15.8SD=4.83

20.3SD=6.18

1.6 9.5 52.4 36.5

8 81.4 3.5 12.0 12.3SD=5.43

17.9SD=6.01

18.2 15.9 50.0 15.9

*For each NOG item the sum of the percentages of frequency of occurrence does not equal 100 because some respondents checked "Don'tUnderstand" as their response to an item. In addition, discrepancies in percentages across first age ranks with those given in the text foreach item are a result of the fact that the proportions used in the text for each item include only those individuals who also reported ausable response for frequency of occurrence.†14.1%—the largest proportion for any item in any meta-category—indicated that they did not understand this item.

MK Item 1—"As a child, did you have times when you experienced life as an illusion and unreal, but onein which most people, including grownups, seemed to be caught up? (Perhaps it appeared to be like a playin which everyone was just acting but didn't know it.)"

As indicated above, the distribution of first encounters is such that 83% of all respondents having

one or more experience are under 12 years old. The very steep drop off in reported first experiences

with increasing age indicates that the lack of occurrence from about age 18 onward may be due to

accculturation into consenual norms of how the world works. A contingency table of age rank of first

encounter versus rate of occurrence over life-time so far shows a borderline significant dependency

relationship (Chi-square = 6.908, 3 df, p = 0.0749) with an over-representation of experients in the

lowest age rank who go on to have multiple experiences.

Although this item can be understood as classically mystical (see Table 1c), it can also indicate

an incipient psychoticism ("world as illusion and unreal"). Thus data collected on treatment for

psychiatric disorder was cross-tabulated with the collected frequency of occurrence for this item

yielding a significant result (Chi-square = 9.656, 3 df, p = 0.0217) with a tendency for those reporting

mental illness to be more likely to report having had an Item 1 experience.1 42.5% of those responding

to Item 1 and indicating that they had been treated for mental disorder claimed never to have had this


experience—but 57.5% did. Although one cell number is below 5, the results are still strongly

suggestive and, therefore, when these results are taken together with the very different age of first

occurrence distribution (Figure 3a) as compared to the other MK items, we may be looking at

something other than spiritual experiencing in these cases. It has been speculated that some cases of

psychosis may be, in fact, what we previously have called a "failed mystic" and these experients may

represent a cross-over group including a mix of psychotic ideation and mystical experiencing (Nelson,

2000). Alternatively, seeing life as an illusion may be at odds with consensual notions of

reality—creating a clash of worldviews—and, therefore, be a source of fundamental confusion and

subsequent psychological difficulty for experients trying to live out their beliefs within the confines of

cultural norms.

Figure 3a: Relative Rates of MK Experiences Across First Age Ranks

MK Item 2—"Have you ever found yourself knowing and/or saying something that seemed to comethrough you, rather than from you, expressing a wisdom you don't feel you usually have?"

Well over half (54.3%) of the respondents record having this experience with 54.6% of those

recording any experience falling into the 12 to under 18 year old age group at the time of their first

encounters. The distribution of experients in the two adjacent age groups is about evenly split but less

than half of the group of adolescents. 58% of multiple experients commence these experiences during

adolescence while only 40% of those who have had only one encounter start then.

MK Item 3—"Have you ever felt as though you were very close to a powerful spiritual force that seemedto lift you out of or take you beyond your ordinary self?"

In this case, only slightly more than a third (37.9%) of participants indicated that they have

experienced "a powerful spiritual force" with 48.4% starting during adolescence (12 to less than 18


years of age) and 23.2% commencing in pre-adolescence (6 to less than 12 years of age). A test for

dependency between age rank of first encounter versus rate of occurrence over life-time so far is

significant (Chi-square = 13.74, df, p = 0.0033) showing an over-representation of multiple experients

who start in the lowest two age ranks. As in most of these tests throughout, the numbers per cell are

fairly low and in this case two cells are under represented leaving the results as slightly suggestive

only.

Figure 3b:Distribution of percentage of MK experients across first-age ranks and for each lifetimefrequency of occurrence rank

MK Item 4—"Have you ever had an intense experience of attaining union with the 'cosmic', divine orultimate ground of being in which you felt yourself 'dissolve' or merge with the ultimate and after whichyou felt as though the encounter had changed your life?"

For this item more than two-thirds of the entire sample indicated that they had never had such an

encounter and the majority reporting it started in adolescence (53.2%). Just under a fifth (19%) claim

to have had this classic mystical encounter, but there does not appear to be any dependency relationship


between age at start and rate of occurrence. Of course, the total number reporting both age of first

encounter and occurrence of this experience is too low (62) to allow for any clear conclusions to be

drawn.

MK Item 5—"Have you ever had an experience in which you perceived that all was really connectedtogether as one?"

Well over one third of respondents indicated that they had had an experience of this type (38.8%)

with half of the experient group starting during adolescence. However, unlike many of the other

experience types, the group comprised of 18 year olds and over contains the next largest collection of

first time experients (30.4%) suggesting an overall later starting period for this kind of encounter.

Again, there is no dependency between experience rank and starting age and with the total numbers

reporting both variables being about 20% of the sample, any conclusions must be considered tentative.

MK Item 6—"Do you sometimes feel a sense of awe and wonderment inspired by the immediate worldaround you?"

This item had the strongest positive response to any in the MK meta-category (78.2%) with

45.8% of the sample reporting both starting age and experience frequency indicating that these

encounters first commenced during adolescence and 27.7% during pre-adolescence (6 to less than 12

years of age). Here a fairly strong dependency relationship exists between first encounter age versus

rate of occurrence over life-time so far (Chi-square = 12.59, 3 df, p = 0.0056), but with two cells

being under-represented the indication that multiple experients tend to start more often in adolescence

and pre-adolescence is suggestive only.

MK Item 7—"Do you sometimes purposely 'tune in' to a special quality of the world that seems to underlieeverything around us?"

Nearly two-thirds of those responding to this item indicated that they never 'tune in' in the manner

suggested (61.3%). Here, as in most other experiences reported in this paper, the majority (51.6%)

appear to start during adolescence whereas the majority of the remainder start later during the period 18

years and older (37.1%). A contingency table cross-tabulating rank of starting age with rate of

experience yields a significant dependency relationship between these variables (Chi-square = 10.05, 3

df, p = 0.0181) indicating that younger starting ages are more likely to lead to being multiple

experients.


MK Item 8—"While awake, have you ever suddenly been cast into a strange new world or reality whichhad a vividness that made the whole experience appear to be absolutely real although in retrospect yourealized that the entire episode may not have physically happened?"

This item received the second-highest 'Never' response for all items in the first section of the

questionnaire (81.4%). Only a small number of respondents reported this experience and those who

answered it positively and recorded a first age of occurrence were only 39 individuals thus making any

conclusions about this item very tenuous. Nevertheless, the age period of first start reported by those

answering both experience and age items was predominantly adolescence (56.4%) with all but 3

individuals evenly divided between pre-adolescence and the 18 and over age groups. In this case there

is no significant dependency relationship, but, again, the number of respondents in this group is too low

to give a meaningful indication one way or the other.

The Absorption Domain and Spiritual Experiencing

In the final section of the data analysis, we explore the relationship of between rate of experience

for NOG, NOP and MK meta-categories and levels of Personality Trait Absorption including the total

Absorption score (TAS), the Total Absorption Opportunity Score (TAOS), and the Total Absorption

Capacity Score (TACS). Frequency and normal probability plots of the variables, TAS, TAOS and

TACS, were made with the results indicating that these variables were suitable for use as continuous

variables in one-way analyses of variance across the categorical variables, NOG, NOP and MK, for

experience frequency rank.

Analysis of Total Absorption Score—TASThe mean TAS for the entire group is 18.04 with a median of 18, standard deviation of 7.162,

minimum score of 0 and a maximum of 34 (max possible = 34). Figure 4 provides a plot of total

absorption scores for each rank of each meta-category. It is evident that, on average, experients show

higher mean total Trait Absorption for higher frequencies of experience whether it is non-ordinary

guidance, non-ordinary perception or moments of mystical knowing.

ANOVA for Total Absorption Score (TAS) Across Ranks of Non-Ordinary Guidance (NOG)

Table 6a details the count, mean, median, standard deviation and range for each of the levels of

non-ordinary guidance frequency of occurrence in an experient's lifetime. As can be seen there is a

progressive rise in mean TAS score with rising rate of NOG experience over a lifetime.


Figure 4: TAS across experience ranks of meta-categories

Table 6a—Descriptive Statistics for TAS scores across NOG Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max

Never 39 14.54 14 6.597 1 27Rarely 155 16.97 17 6.935 0 34More Often 228 19.13 19 7.196 0 34Frequently 31 19.90 20 6.675 10 33

An analysis of variance test of TAS across rate group reveals a highly significant result (F(3,449)

= 6.98, p = 0.0001). Table 6b gives the results for a Bonferroni post hoc test between within group

categories (Keppel, 1982). This test was chosen because of its conservatism and one can see that the

significant differences for mean TAS scores lie between the sub-groups 'More Often' and 'Never';

'More Often' and 'Rarely'; 'Frequently' and 'Never'. As can be seen in Table 5a the lowest and highest

experience ranks have many fewer subjects than the middle two ranks. Although this somewhat

weakens the strength of the results, it is still strongly suggestive that higher scores on the TAS are more

likely to be found in the ranks of higher rates of non-ordinary guidance experience.

Table 6b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TAS scores across NOG Experience RanksDifference Probability

More Often—Never 4.59 0.001110More Often—Rarely 2.16 0.019698Frequently—Never 5.36 0.009598


ANOVA for Total Absorption Score (TAS) Across Ranks of Non-Ordinary Perception (NOP)

Table 7a provides the count, mean, median, standard deviation and range for each of the

frequency levels of non-ordinary perception.

Table 7a—Descriptive Statistics for TAS scores across NOP Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max

Never 34 10.35 9 5.581 0 23Rarely 120 15.83 16 6.216 1 34More Often 186 18.49 18.5 6.725 0 33Frequently 113 21.97 22 6.555 2 34

The ANOVA results for the test for differences among TAS means across NOP ranks is highly

significant (F(3,449) = 34.86, p ! 0.0001). Here the cell counts are somewhat better distributed ('Never

is still somewhat under represented) and the results stand as more than suggestive with a steady climb

in mean TAS score with increasing rank of NOP experience frequency. Bonferroni post hoc tests

between ranks reveals that all separate from each other statistically significantly. There is little doubt

from these result that those who have non-ordinary perceptions more are, on average, higher in overall

Personality Trait Absorption (Table 7b).

Table 7b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TAS scores across NOP Experience RanksDifference Probability

Rarely—Never 5.48 0.000097More Often—Never 8.14 0.000000More Often—Rarely 2.66 0.002935Frequently—Never 11.62 0Frequently—Rarely 6.14 0.000000Frequently—More Often 3.48 0.000050

ANOVA for Total Absorption Score (TAS) Across Ranks of Mystical Knowing (MK)

Table 8a shows the count, mean, median, standard deviation and range for each of the frequency

levels of mystical knowing.

Table 8a—Descriptive Statistics for TAS scores across MK Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max


Again, as in the last analysis, the ANOVA of TAS means across MK frequency ranks is highly

statistically significant (F(3,449) = 50.10, p ! 0.0001) for all ranking groups with a distribution of

experients across ranking cells similar to NOP experients (Table 8b). This suggests that there are real


differences in absorptive capacity for experients who engage mystical styles of awareness at different

overall rates.

Table 8b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TAS scores across MK Experience RanksDifference Probability

Rarely—Never 4.80 0.000223More Often—Never 7.76 0.000000More Often—Rarely 2.96 0.000212Frequently—Never 12.71 0Frequently—Rarely 7.91 0Frequently—More Often 4.95 0.000000

Analysis of Total Absorption Opportunity Score—TAOSThe overall mean for the TAOS variable is 103.3 (standard deviation = 57.01) and the median is

92 with a minimum score of 10 and a maximum of 310 (out of a possible 340). Figure 5 reveals a

similar pattern for the TAOS variable (compared to the TAS variable) across the four frequency ranks

of the three meta-categorical variables. As in the previous analysis section, the NOG meta-category

shows the smallest overall differences between ranks and the means of TAOS rise less steeply across

those ranks than they do for the NOP and MK meta-categories ranks.

Figure 5: TAOS across experience ranks of meta-categories


ANOVA for Total Absorption Opportunity Score (TAOS) Across Ranks of Non-Ordinary Guidance(NOG)

Table 9a details the count, mean, median, standard deviation and score range for each of the

NOG ranks for TAOS. As can be seen there is a progressive rise in mean TAOS scores with rising rate

of NOG experience over a lifetime.

Table 9a—Descriptive Statistics for TAOS scores across NOG Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max


A test for difference among the rank means (ANOVA) yields a statistically significant result

(F(3,444) = 5.038, p = 0.0019). Post hoc Bonferroni tests for individual ranks (Table 9b) indicate that

only the 'More Often' rank separates significantly from the two ranks below it and the 'Frequently' rank

shows only a borderline statistically significant difference from the 'Never' rank. Again, the cell

numbers are rather small for the first and last ranks, which will likely lead to higher error variance

capable of masking any real differences between these ranks and the others.

Table 8b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TAOS scores across NOG Experience RanksDifference Probability


ANOVA for Total Absorption Opportunity Score (TAOS) Across Ranks of Non-Ordinary Perception(NOP)

As in the previous analysis of NOP ranks and TAS, there appears to be a strong progressive

increase in the means of total Absorption Opportunity scores with increasing levels of non-ordinary

perception experiences (Table 10a). A test for difference across ranks of TAOS means yields a highly

significant result (F(3,444) = 36.49, p ! 0.0001).

Table 10a—Descriptive Statistics for TAOS scores across NOP Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max

Never 34 51.03 43.5 37.387 0 206Rarely 119 82.75 76 40.494 4 212More Often 182 104.38 93 49.501 0 244Frequently 113 139.00 130 65.631 9 310

As in the previous test of TAS across NOP ranks, the Bonferroni post hoc tests for significant

differences between individual ranks reveals significant differences between all sets of pairs (Table


10b) thus indicating a robust relationship between mean TAOS level and rank of NOP experiences

type.

Table 10b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TAOS scores across NOP Experience RanksDifference Probability


ANOVA for Total Absorption Opportunity Score (TAOS) Across Ranks of Mystical Knowing (MK)

Again, analysis of MK ranks demonstrates a similarly robust relationship for the MK experience

types as for the NOP types for mean TAOS across ranks (F(3,444) = 32.78, p ! 0.0001; See Tables

11a) with strong to very strong statistical significance in all post hoc tests of pairs of means except for

the difference between 'Rarely' and 'Never' which shows only a borderline significance (Table 11b).

Table 11a—Descriptive Statistics for TAOS scores across MK Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max

Never 37 61.70 56 41.066 0 206Rarely 136 85.71 78.5 44.386 0 201More Often 178 103.48 94 52.624 9 249Frequently 97 143.58 135 62.305 42 310

Table 11b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TAOS scores across MK Experience RanksDifference Probability

Rarely—Never 24.01 0.073900More Often—Never 41.77 0.000060More Often—Rarely 17.76 0.016270Frequently—Never 81.87 0.000000Frequently—Rarely 57.86 0.000000Frequently—More Often 40.10 0.000000

Analysis of Total Absorption Capacity Score—TACSThe third Absorption variable, Total Absorption Capacity, also falls within acceptable limits for

being a continuous and normal, with an overall mean of 120.0 (standard deviation = 59.95), a median

of 115, a minimum score of 0 and a maximum of 324 (max possible = 340). Again, the TACS variable

presents a similar pattern of progressive rise across experience ranks (Figure 6) as seen in the previous

two Absorption variables with the NOG meta-category showing the smallest differences across ranks.


Figure 6: TACS across experience ranks of meta-categories

ANOVA for Total Absorption Capacity Score (TACS) Across Ranks of Non-Ordinary Guidance (NOG)

The analysis of the TACS variable across the ranks of NOG experience types shows a strong

overall statistical significance in an analysis of variance (F(3,444) = 5.81, p = 0.0007; See Table 12a).

Also like previous tests with NOG as a categorical variable, two group differences show significance

with an additional one revealing only borderline significance in Bonferroni post hoc tests (Table 12b).

Table 12a—Descriptive Statistics for TACS scores across NOG Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max


Table 12b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TACS scores across NOG Experience RanksDifference Probability


ANOVA for Total Absorption Capacity Score (TACS) Across Ranks of Non-Ordinary Perception(NOP)

In this analysis TACS produces a very strong statistical significance (F(3,444) = 36.65, p !

0.0001) with a steep rise of means across experience ranks (Table 13a). Similarly, Bonferroni post hoc

tests for paired, between group differences in means—TACS across NOP ranks—show strong

significance for differences between all pairings (Table 13b)


Table 13a—Descriptive Statistics for TACS scores across NOP Experience RanksCount Mean Median StdDev Min Max

Never 34 64.97 55 41.230 0 206Rarely 119 98.54 95 43.154 10 218More Often 182 120.83 115.5 53.513 0 269Frequently 113 157.74 151 66.376 8 324

Table 13b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TACS scores across NOP Experience RanksDifference Probability


ANOVA for Total Absorption Capacity Score (TACS) Across Ranks of Mystical Knowing (MK)

And, finally, the means of the total Absorption Capacity scores for each rank of Mystical

Knowing increase with increasing rank of experience frequency (Table 14a) in a similar manner to the

previous MK analysis. The overall ANOVA is highly statistically significant (F(3,444) = 44.06, p !

0.0001) as are all the paired post hoc tests of the means of all the MK ranks. Only one test—between

the 'Rarely' and 'Never' ranks—shows a probability of a Type 1 error as high as 0.031 whereas most are

less than 0.0001 (Table 14b).

Table 14a—Descriptive Statistics for TACS scores across MK Experience RanksCount Mean Median Std. Dev. Min Max

Never 37 69.19 65 39.010 0 206Rarely 136 96.65 89.5 45.411 0 217More Often 178 123.84 117.5 54.711 8 265Frequently 97 164.98 157 62.497 48 324

Table 14b—Bonferroni Post Hoc Tests for TACS scores across MK Experience RanksDifference Probability

Rarely—Never 27.47 0.031083More Often—Never 54.65 0.000000More Often—Rarely 27.18 0.000048Frequently—Never 95.79 0Frequently—Rarely 68.33 0Frequently—More Often 41.14 0.000000

Depression and Anxiety

Analysis of Self-Reported Treatment for Mental Illness and Experience TypesCross-tabulations and associated Chi-Square statistics were calculated for each of the three

experience meta-categories (NOG, NOP and MK) with a questionnaire item that queried whether the

respondent had ever been medically treated for a 'mental illness'. The yes/no response to the item on


treatment formed a 2X4 table with the four ranks of each of the three experience meta-categories. In

the case of Mystical Knowing a significant Chi-Square statistic for dependency was obtained (CS =

10.39, 3 df, p = 0.0155, N = 449 with one cell < 5). Those answering 'yes' to treatment for mental

illness and reporting the highest rank of MK experiencing are over-represented in that cell by a ratio of

1.8:1. However, it must be added that in spite of this over-representation by a relatively small portion

of the experient group (3.8%), 82.9% of those denying that they had had medical treatment for mental

illnesses were, in fact, MK experients. None of the other meta-categories of spiritual experiencing

showed a statistically significant dependency relationship with self-reported treatment for mental

disorder.

Analysis of Self-Evaluated Depression and Anxiety and Experience TypesA cross-tabulation (3X4) of ranks of frequency of self-evaluated depression and ranks of

frequency of NOP experiences yielded a strongly significant Chi-Square statistic (16.98, 6 df, p =

0.0093, N = 448 with one cell < 5). Those reporting the highest frequency of depressive episodes

('More Often') and the highest NOP frequency rank ('Frequently') are over-represented by a ratio of

1.7:1. Despite this 'bulge' in that cell, 89.5% of those claiming to never have had a bout of depression

report some kind of NOP experience and they represent more than a third (34.3%) of the whole sample

answering both items. Taken together with those who report rare episodes of depression and all ranks

of NOP experiences, 77.8% of the total sample is accounted for.

Experients who report episodes of Mystical Knowing also show a highly significant Chi-Square

statistic (28.70, 6 df, p ! 0.0001, N = 448) for dependency when their responses are cross-tabulated

with their reports of self-perceived rates of depression. Again, the cell most over-represented is the

highest in both MK experience rate and frequency of depression with a ratio of almost 2:1.

Nevertheless, those reporting no or rare episodes of depression and all levels of MK experiencing

account for 77.9% of the respondents given in this cross-tabulation.

A similar pattern of dependency is seen when NOP and MK experience ranks are each cross-

tabulated with rate ranks of self-perceived bouts of anxiety. NOP taken across ranks of anxiety

episodes yields a statistically significant dependency relationship (Chi-square = 31.04, 6 df, p !

0.0001, N = 447 with one cell < 5) with the cell for the highest rank of each variable over-represented

by a ratio of 1.6:1. Those having bouts of anxiety rarely or not at all and who are also NOP experients

account for 74.1% of the sample. In the case of MK experients the cross-tabulation with ranks of

anxiety yields a strong statistical significance (Chi-square = 27.76, 6 df, p = 0.0001, N = 447 with one


cell < 5), but the ratio of the number of respondents to the expected value in the cell for the highest

ranks of both variables is somewhat less over-represented than in the previous case (1.4:1).

DISCUSSION

Although this research is not based on a random sample and the age range is almost exclusively

young adult, some interesting trends can be seen throughout the analysis that are suggestive of what

might be found if a random survey were to be conducted of the broader population. Nevertheless, it is

immediately apparent that there is an overall very high participation rate in the meta-categories of

spiritual and non-ordinary experiencing as defined in the methodology section of this paper (90+%

across all three meta-category experience groups of Non-Ordinary Guidance, Non-Ordinary Perception,

and Mystical Knowing). The strong showing of first-time spiritual and non-ordinary encounters in

both pre-adolescence as well as adolescence throughout the analysis strongly suggests that children

have active spiritual lives and that their experiences remain significant markers in their lifetimes. As

also indicated in the analysis, this sample is drawn from a population that reports very high levels of

participation in religious life and within their communities there is probably a high tolerance for certain

kinds of direct, spiritual knowing. In fact, some experiences—particularly any encounters considered to

be contact with of guidance from a divine source—are highly valued and likely to be a cultural

indicators sought after.

The analysis also shows that this current sample is overwhelming comprised of women,

reflecting the population of the college from which the survey was drawn. Within the sample,

however, women are more likely to report higher rates of occurrence of Non-Ordinary Guidance

(NOG) type experiences than men, but gender differences are minimal across occurrence rate

categories for Non-Ordinary Perception (NOP) experiences. Reversing the trend seen in the NOG

meta-category, men tend to appear more frequently in the higher levels of experiencing in the Mystical

Knowing (MK) meta-category. Experiences of being guided by an ontological 'other' may be tied to a

self-concept in which one sees oneself as more closely bound to the nexus of social and religious forces

and pressures that surround an individual's life. The gender difference in experiences of being guided

may be due, in fact, to differences in the ways women and men see themselves in relation to their social

contexts. The slightly higher rate of mystical experiencing demonstrated by men in this sample is more

difficult to explain, on the other hand. The effect observed still may have something to do with gender

differences regarding social connectedness in that mystical and related experiences can tend to

represent spiritual knowing that commences from being more alienated from one's social network.


Nelson's (1989b, 1991) earlier studies of spiritual experiencing reveal that alienation and stress do play

a role as significant triggers in mystical and related non-ordinary experiencing. So, higher rates of

occurrence among young men may be indicative of stress related social isolation differences between

the genders.

Looking at the results for the analysis of the Absorption data gathered as part of the survey, it is

clear that experients from all meta-categorical types show increased levels of this trait with increasing

frequency of engagement in various forms of spiritual experiencing. Absorption is a style of attentional

deployment and engagement that tends to include a more intense intrapersonal awareness as well as a

more engaged attention to externals. It is probably the personality trait basis for the style of being-in-

the-world that is known as 'flow' (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988), which has been shown to be connected to

creativity and the discovery of alternative epistemic frames in adults. Children who would score high

in Trait Absorption will likely manifest a style of being-in-the-world that will be discouraged by

teachers and parents who tend to more highly value outward-directed activity like social engagement

and intellectual achievements. For example, they may at times be perceived as "day dreamers" or lost

(absorbed) in some project or activity and therefore appear out of phase with the pace and style and

performance expectations of normal classroom activity. Traditionally, there is not a great deal of

positive recognition or reward for the more inward, absorptive flow style of being-in-the-world. This

intolerance leads to the application of continued pressure in opposition to the natural inclination of

children manifesting this style and, in the long run, will certainly work against those with this kind of

innate 'spiritual capacity'. However, there are explicit attempts to welcome more absorptive states of

mind into schools as a natural part of the learning process (Hart, in press).

Many researchers and helping professionals believe that there is a relationship between mystical

experiencing and mental illness (Committee on Psychiatry and Religion, 1976). It is almost a cliché

that one often will experience a "dark night of the soul" as a kind of mental crisis preceding a spiritual

breakthrough. The results reported here suggest some kind of a dependency relationship between

mystical experiencing and psychological disorder as observed in the occurrence of higher rates of

anxiety and depression amongst the highest ranks of experience in our sample as well as higher than

expected treatment rates for mental illness among the highest rates seen in MK experients. Taken in

the context of the Absorption findings a partial mechanism can be posited. Anxiety and depression

might be more prevalent among those who find their more absorptive, inward styles of being-in-the-

world under on-going pressure away from a natural, inward style and towards a more social, extrovert

and goal-oriented life.


However, this social demand may affect the more extreme cases, only, as there still appears to be

a large majority who may not experience this as a corrosive pressure (83% in our sample responding to

the MK items positively have not been treated for mental illness). In many instances absorptive states

are self-reinforcing thereby partially countering the pressure against them. However, those who

experience higher rates of MK and NOP type experiences also may have a greater natural emotional

sensitivity and lability, which in a non-supportive environment might leave a non-ordinary experient

feeling anxiety that eventually leads to on-going depression as a result of finding little relief from

constant unease and growing social isolation. The details and exact mechanism underpinning the

relationship among emotional lability, Absorption and frequent spiritual experiencing remains to be

explored in future research.

In addition to the very high overall rate of respondents (90+%) reporting recollections of some

type of spiritual and/or non-ordinary experiencing, 24 to 40 percent report that their first encounters

occurred in childhood prior to adolescence. Although this pre-adolescent response rate is well in line

with earlier surveys of the adult population, it is interesting to note that when the entire under 18 year

old section of our sample is considered, then 82.8 percent report one or more non-ordinary guidance

experiences, 84.6 percent recount at least one non-ordinary perception event, and 90.0% indicate

having had one or more experiences of mystical knowing. By itself this has significant implications for

developmental theory and, in turn, the practice of education, psychotherapy, parenting and early

religious and character education. Further, the range of these experiences underscores the diversity of

expression of alternate epistemic frames of knowing occurring in children—perhaps pointing to the

existence of an innate spiritual temperament as the source. The results of this study suggest that

children have an array of spiritual experiences that may shape their worldviews and provide a

foundation for the emergence of character traits. If these first results were to stand up to a larger,

random survey that better represented age in the normal population, we might need to rewrite the book

on developmental psychology to give what are often profoundly life-altering experiences a more

prominent place as important early influences in life-span development.

The intensity and epistemic disjunctions associated with these kinds of spiritual and non-ordinary

experiences not only may shape a child's emerging worldview, but such encounters are more likely to

foster the formation of a sense of 'interconnectedness' among people and all life—a kind of ecological

consciousness—ultimately leading to feelings and perceptions that seed the development of a more

expansive and connecting personality. Thus, we might understand this kind of spiritual experiencing in

childhood and adolescence as a catalyst for the formation of character traits such as empathy or

compassion. Once a child's awareness is opened to a larger 'picture' of self and other, this may invite


ponderings about ontological, metaphysical, epistemological and moral issues at a deep personal level

that may otherwise not be addressed until later in life, if at all. For example, a recognition of

interconnection or an experience of "deep empathy" (Hart, 2000) may be a foundation for an ethic of

care and concern for others just as a direct non-ordinary perception may inform notions about knowing

and what is possible in terms of interpersonal communication.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Beyond the widespread occurrence of spiritual experience in childhood as revealed in our data,

we are suggesting that different individuals may be prone to having different kinds of experiences. In

addition, this spiritual diversity may suggest the existence of differing spiritual natures or styles. These

traditionally untrained ways of knowing and being—such as the capacity for wonder, awe, deep

empathy, interconnection and so forth—may be foundational for socially responsible character

development and may provide the basis for constructive motivation and positive direction throughout

an individual's lifespan. This research also suggests that underlying this character development there

may be particular innate, temperamental characteristics—such as Trait Absorption—that provide the

neuropsychological basis for spiritual and non-ordinary perception and knowing. It would be

interesting to explore whether the academic divide over the reality and efficacy of non-ordinary and

spiritual knowing is connected to differences in temperamental and characterological traits of the

combatants.

The prevailing view that children are inherently unspiritual and have little capacity for spiritual

knowing and expression—and are even "apelike" in their cognitive development (Wilber, 1996)—has

been tied to a belief that the forging and molding of character proceeds from the 'outside' 'in' with little

consideration of children's spirituality as possibly emerging from the 'inside' 'out'. Given the

implications of the present research, the question begging to be asked is what and whom are we

inadvertently ignoring or repressing by maintaining our current psychological and religious

understanding of children. If children have spiritual capacity and experiences as this study suggests,

the task of working with them may shift somewhat to understanding their insights, spiritual proclivities,

and spiritual style in order to appreciate and work more directly with the process of their emergent

ways of knowing and being. Perhaps in so doing, we might learn that children have something to teach

adults about living a more attuned life. A revised approach to educating children would invite an on-

going dialectic between the 'outside' adult view of "the good life" and the child's direct and emergent

knowing as given from the 'inside'. Such an approach to personal development and education might

possibly facilitate pathways toward the manifestation of greater wisdom in adult life.


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Notes

1This table shows MK Item 1 (columns—'seeing the world as unreal') cross-tabulated with item 62 (rows) from thequestionnaire ("Have you ever been medically treated for a 'mental illness' or a 'nervous breakdown'?"). Although thehighest percentage responding positively (42.5%) claim never to have this experience it is less than the expected valuewhereas those claiming the experience at a rate of "More often" appear at twice the expected rate.

Never Once only 2-3 times More often total

Yes 17 3 7 13 4042.5 7.50 17.5 32.5 1007.30 10 12.1 20.6 10.44.43 0.781 1.82 3.39 10.4

24.2708 3.12500 6.04167 6.56250 40

No 216 27 51 50 34462.8 7.85 14.8 14.5 10092.7 90 87.9 79.4 89.656.2 7.03 13.3 13.0 89.6

208.729 26.8750 51.9583 56.4375 344

total 233 30 58 63 38460.7 7.81 15.1 16.4 100100 100 100 100 100

60.7 7.81 15.1 16.4 100233 30 58 63 384

table contents:CountPercent of Row TotalPercent of Column TotalPercent of Table TotalExpected Values

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